Yes, it is always like that. There is one very unique place in my country where there is a really deep valley with very unique slope, soil type, terrain etc. and there is one professional station in the valley and one at the top, vertical distance between these two is 800m (half a mile). When there is inversion and certain unique conditions, the difference between these two stations is even over 35 degrees! Yes, last yr there was at one point -10C at one and 23.5C (15 and 75F) at the other one - half a mile distance....